IAF calls on Canadian Parliament to work with authors to resolve copyright imbalance

The International Authors Forum has written to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology in Canada, raising concerns about the ongoing unregulated extension of ‘fair dealing’ in education to the disadvantage of authors.

IAF has supported Canadian authors on these issues before and had hoped that Canadian authors would see fairer remuneration by now. IAF calls for the fair dealing principle in Canadian education to be kept in check, hopefully by looking to the positive examples of extended licensing agreements established in other countries ensuring access to materials for students and remuneration for authors. IAF supports a reasonable relationship between user access and reward for the creator. Respecting this mutually beneficial relationship drives creation and creates opportunities for students to access high-quality work. Without reasonable and effective creator reward in the current context, Canadian copyright has fallen out of balance. In consideration of this, we hope that the balance of access and reward is reviewed and a new solution is found with Canadian creators.